In news that may be shocking to the more negative among us regarding the state of the sport of drag racing, there is a literal resurgence happening in the world of drag strips. Two facilities that have been closed are set to reopen again and a closed airport in an Iowa city is the center of a push to create a new drag racing facility for people to compete at out there. All of this runs counter to the “popular thinking” that tracks are folding up left and right and the sport is going away. Looking at all three situations and the bottom line boils down to the same thing. There are people who believe that they can be made into viable properties and that they can serve a public that is starved in their local area for something to do or somewhere to go. As street racing gets glorified in front of millions of people every week it stands to make sense that facilities should have a customer base that they can convince to get off the street and onto a race track. After all the hand wringing over tracks during the last 5-10 years, let’s join in a fist pump for some places that are working to get themselves up and running again.

Emerald Coast Dragway –

If the name Ozzy Moya is not familiar to you, it should be. Ozzy is the owner of Lakeland Dragway, Orlando Speedworld, South Georgia Motorsports Park, and now the soon to be reopened Emerald Coast Dragway. The place has been closed since 2011 and in this video, it sure looks like it. The eighth mile strip is cracked, the tower has had the windows shot out of it, and as you can imagine, the facility generally looks abandoned. We believe that Moya currently owns more drag strips than anyone outside of the NHRA and Bruton Smith. He has had success at his other venues and he seems to have a pretty solid plan on how to operate a place to keep the customers and the bottom line happy.

What’s on tap for the revival of Emerald Coast Dragway? 

• Repaving/revamping of track surface
• Revamping of lighting
• Revamping of timing tower
• Replacement of guard rails with cement walls
• Replacement/revamp of front gate and entry
• Bring grounds back up to snuff.

We’re going to keep following this story. The video below shows the place as it sat last month –

North Myrtle Beach Drag Strip –

There has been drag racing in the North Myrtle Beach area for decades, just not at the same tracks. North Myrtle Beach Drag Strip was opened in 1991 and has operated off and on since then.  The simple, neighborhood style eighth mile facility has been shut down for a couple of seasons but a group of investors has apparently poured a reported $400,000 into the place to get it race worthy again. Opened up last weekend for a “meet and greet” and again next weekend for the same, racing will start in early April for the first time in 2016.

We don’t have a ton of details as to what has been done to the place to get it brought back up to racing condition but we do know that we’re happy to see people involved that are dedicated and community minded. The track has been trying to work with the Myrtle Beach city government to help with the annual Bike Week crowds and they are planning on throwing a “unity” concert on the property for bikers to attend during that event.

There had been noise issues in the past and neighbor complaints as well as permitting and other issues out there. It seems that all of those things have been put to the past and the track is reinvigorated to start serving their “Grand Strand” customer base in the Myrtle Beach area.

As we have often said, small tracks like these are the backbone of the sport and we need all of them that we can get!

Here’s a news story that talks about the track

Here’s a video that was taken at the place in 2010 showing an Evo running down the track –

Onawa Racing and Events Complex – Onawa, Iowa –

The third part of our triumvirate of tracks is the developing story in Onawa, Iowa. There was a municipal airport there that was virtually unused to the point that the city was losing money on the place because of maintenance fees and the upkeep to maintain it as an active runway. The decision was made to close the airport and it did just that in July of last year.

As the place was closing an alternative use committee was established and that committee came up with ways to repurpose the property and create something useful to the community from it. Their idea is a multiple use facility built around a drag strip. They have gotten clearance from the city to move ahead with the project and they are now in the process of raising money through a stock sale. The goal is to raise $300,000 at which point the city will match it and then will begin making the improvements and changes to the facility to actually make it into a drag strip. There are 840 shares available at $1,000 a piece for investment.

The sincere hope of everyone involved is that they will be able to do something in 2016 and then have a full season of racing in 2017. We are on their side and hope that the guys and girls behind the project can get the money raised and the shovels moving sooner rather than later on this one. We’ve got a lot of respect for everyone involved here because this is the way it is supposed to work. The entire community has been involved as well as the city government. No one is freaking out or throwing a fit, instead they are working together on a common sense project that should help everyone in the entire community. Details below –

Here’s a news story on the facility and the plan to get it up and running